“What do you mean you can”t sell us anything!?”

Yuri snapped at a white robed old man in front of her.

“I am terribly sorry, but we don’t use currency here. I can’t accept your small pieces of precious metals.”

Yuri and Hikaru had finally found someone in the city who specialised in making various magical items, of which swords were included. Which was the main reason they were trying to negotiate with him.

“Fine then!” She huffed and stormed away.

“I’ll get it another way..”

Saying to herself while making her way outside the small office, she exited the building, with Hikaru behind her as always.

“If we can’t get it by honest means. Then we will get you a weapon by the means I am most used to. I tried to play nice. Besides, it’s more fun this way.”

She grinned.

They made their way towards a less crowded corner of the shiny metal street, and sat down while calmly watching the building they exited.

It was a tall golden tower, not unlike the rest, except this one had more wires coming out of its top, creating the illusion of a lush tree.

They waited until they could see the old man fly off out the building on his small floating disk.

“Now is our chance, let’s go Hikaru!”

She jumped up on Hikaru’s shoulders.

“Is it really necessary for me to carry you this way, Yuri?”

He asked with a wry smile.

“Yes. How else would I keep up with you when you do your ninja things.” Yuri didn’t notice Hikaru frown when she said ‘ninja’.

“Now onwards mighty steed, for glory!”

She called out while poking his side with her foot.

Sighing but complying, he began to run towards the tower so quickly that Yuri had to grab onto his head in an awkward manner in order to not fall off.

He didn’t stop when they reached the tower, he kept running, however instead of running towards the building, he was now running on it, dashing vertically up the side of the building.

This was only made possible by Yuri drawing temporary runes on the bottom of Hikaru’s shoes. Making clever use of air runes, Yuri made it so the runes created a split second vacuum which made Hikaru’s shoes momentarily stick to the side of the building each time they touched a sold surface.

This feat was only possible due to Hikaru’s speed and having the building made of a flat smooth surface which helped in creating a good vacuum.

Yuri clung desperately to Hikaru’s neck with her legs flailing in the air.

Luckily for her, they soon made it to their destination, a small hole in the side of the building. Made for presumable ventilation purposes, which Hikaru had spotted earlier.

“Okay..now..whatever you do..don’t let go of that..”

Breathing heavily, it also seemed as if it was Yuri who had run up the tower.

Hikaru however, was fairly calm while clinging to the side of the building, his only support being a small hole which he was grabbing onto with one hand.

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“Okay..I’m going to start now..so keep still..”

Climbing onto his shoulders again, she began to draw runes around the vent.

“Alright..this should do it..I think..”

She finally said after carefully etching runes while trying to not slip off Hikaru’s shoulders.

“You still okay?”She asked.

“I’m fine, please continue..”

He spoke calmly, but being so close to him, Yuri could see the small sweat drops beginning to form on his forehead.

“Alright, I will make this quick. Once I activate these runes, you have to jump up or else your arms will melt off.”

She activated the runes.

“Go!”

Straining every muscle on his body, Hikaru launched himself up the tower with his single arm, Yuri still clinging to him.

They felt the heat from the runes below them. Hikaru began to use the runes on his shoes to run around in a circle so at to not fall down while they waited for the heat to cool off.

“Hmm..maybe I should have just used feather fall instead of having you run like this…”

Yuri muttered.

“What was that?”

Hikaru breathed out while running around on the side of a tall tower while trying to keep up the same pace.

“Nothing!” She looked away.

“I think it’s been enough now, run down to the vent.”

Hikaru ceased running and let gravity do the work for, grabbing onto the vent at the last second.

The previously small vent, now with its insides melted out, was big enough to fit them. They quickly crawled in and began climbing in towards what they thought was the lab.

–

“Sure is dark here…”

Yuri commented while being helped down from the vent by Hikaru.

“I can handle that..!”

Hikaru said quickly when he noticed Yuri reaching for her dagger.

Hikaru took out a small piece of paper with something drawn on it. After tearing it part, a small fireball the size of a ping pong ball appeared, floating above his outstretched hand.

“….Cute.”

Yuri patted the small ball of fire which didn’t seem to give off any heat. It shook slightly, as if in delight over getting patted, although it was most likely just due to Yuri moving it by patting.

Hikaru scratched his head while observing Yuri curiously.

“This should help us find something to light up the room at least”

He began to search the room for any source of light with the help of his small fireball.

Yuri however, remembering the resemblance this city had to cities of her world, began to search for the door.

After locating it, she checked the walls near it. Her suspicions were confirmed when she found a small switch near the door, which she quickly pulled.

The room became encased in light from crystals embedded into the walls and the ceiling.

Hikaru entered a combat stance, but relaxed upon noticing that the sudden light was caused by Yuri.

With the room now well lit, they began to properly look around.

Around them were shelves of books vials and other small items, covering all of the walls in the room.

The parts not covered in shelves were instead fitted with boards bearing all manner of designs and peculiar equations that did not resemble anything Yuri had seen before.

The rest of the room was filled with white metal tables, various tools and crystals were thrown about them in a careless fashion.

Some of the tables held containers filled with green liquid that was slowly bubbling.

Moving closer to a container, Yuri tried to gaze in and saw something small inside.

She looked at it intensely, her face only a hair breadth away from the glass.

The object in the container stirred slightly, it was an eye, that was now open.

Yuri tried to look at it from the side to get a better view. The eye kept eye contact with Yuri however, rotating towards the her, and making observing its side impossible.

The eye suddenly moved and bumped against the glass in the direction of Yuri.

Yuri yelped and fell back, hitting the table behind her.

“Yuri, what’s wrong?”

Hikaru appeared at her side, helping her up.

“N-nothing..”

She was obviously startled.

“Let’s just look for a sword, and anything else valuable we can get and get the hell out of here..”

She cast nervous glances at the containers.

As soon as they got to continuing their search. All of the lights around them turned red, the room quickly filling with green gas.

They tried to get out, but their bodies weren’t responding and their minds felt sluggish.

They slumped on the ground, fainting slowly.

The last thing Yuri saw the eye in the green container, staring at her.